TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AFX) - Officials from Florida's two largest electric companies say they've nearly completed the main thing they need to do to be ready for hurricanes this summer, having aggressively trimmed the trees and limbs around many of their power lines.
At a hearing before the Public Service Commission Monday, officials from Florida Power and Light say they've cleared or cut down all the trees left dead or dying by last year's Hurricane Wilma in their service area, and completed all the necessary cutting around the power lines in critical areas, such as around the power lines feeding key hospitals.
Progress Energy also said it has cleared vegetation from around its most critical lines and expects to have all the cutting it needs to do finished by the end of June, when the company expects the hurricane season to truly get going.
Power company officials say that the big problem for the power lines in hurricanes isn't generally that winds knock down poles or wires. They do, but not anywhere near as often as wind knocks down old trees in water-soaked ground, which then fall on wires and pull them down, knocking out power to everyone nearby.
Officials with FPL, the state's largest utility, Progress, and several other public electric companies, municipal utilities and rural electric co-ops, told the state utility regulatory panel that they've upgraded their infrastructure, re-evaluated their storm planning and stepped up tree-trimming where possible in light of forecasts for more above-average hurricane seasons.
'I want to assure you we have done everything we can prior to the 2006 hurricane season to be as prepared as we possibly can be,' said FPL's vice president of distribution Geisha Williams.
FPL is undertaking a large-scale, long-term project to strengthen its poles, increase its tree clearing and rebuild stronger what was destroyed in the storms of 2004 and 2005.
Officials at Progress also say they've stockpiled replacement materials such as poles and wires to be able to quickly put them back up in case of a storm.
Last year, FPL came under criticism for how long the power was out -- several weeks in some cases -- after Wilma hit South Florida in October.
The hurricane season officially began June 1, but typically storms don't form until later in the summer.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.